DOCSLIB.ORG

Voyeurism and Gendered Violence in Tomson Highwayâ•Žs Dry Lips

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Voyeurism and Gendered Violence in Tomson Highwayâ•Žs Dry Lips Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts Volume 4 Article 3 10-25-2017 Voyeurism and Gendered Violence in Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing and Griselda Gambaro’s Information for Foreigners Erica Parnis Wilfrid Laurier University Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/luja Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, and the Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons Recommended Citation Parnis, Erica. "Voyeurism and Gendered Violence in Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing and Griselda Gambaro’s Information for Foreigners." Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts 4 (2017) : -. Print. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts by an authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Parnis: Voyeurism and Gendered Violence in Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing Voyeurism and Gendered Violence in Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing and Griselda Gambaro’s Information for Foreigners Erica Parnis Canadian playwright Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing is one of the best-known works of Indigenous theatre. It also contains one of the most controversial scenes: Dickie Bird Halked’s brutal rape of Cree trickster Nanabush, taking the form of Patsy “Big-Bum” Pegahmagahbow. Highway intended this vio- lence to be symbolic—by juxtaposing the play’s comedy and its disturbing con- tent, the playwright sought to present a critique of gendered and colonial violence. Yet, as many Indigenous women have criticized, the eschewing of positive female representations in favour of demeaning tropes only serves to perpetuate the char- acters’ misogyny and violence (Baker 88). The rape scene in Dry Lips exemplifies the concept of emblematic sexual violence, a term I use to describe the dramatic practice of performing gendered violence or rape to symbolize national or cultural violation. While this concept is not limited to theatre, the innate physicality and proximity of the stage simulates a mutual exchange between viewer and performer and makes the performance of violence especially worthy of critique. The close- ness of theatre also makes it more prone to voyeurism and sensationalism when portraying violence. Using sexual violence as a symbol risks confining the act to the realm of fiction, and this forces critics to ask: Is performing sexual violence an effective method of combatting it? I explore the complexities of this question in two productions: Tomson Highway’s Dry Lips and Griselda Gambaro’s Information for Foreigners. Both use representations of sexual violence to criticize cultural and national corruption and communicate a political agenda. Where they differ, however, is in their implications. Dry Lips is a dangerous misstep in the use of emblematic sexual violence; Highway risks divorcing the act of rape from reality, confining it to the comical dream world. Audiences are encouraged to act as voyeurs, people who consume representations of gendered violence while remaining passive and inactive. Furthermore, Highway relies on the fetishistic trope that equates Indigenous women’s bodies with the earth and uses rape to symbolize colonial violence—a concept with its roots in the oppressive colonial forces Highway sought to deconstruct. Gambaro’s Information Published by Scholars Commons @ Laurier, 2017 1 Laurier Undergraduate Journal of the Arts, Vol. 4 [2017], Art. 3 6 LUJA for Foreigners, however, avoids voyeurism, and through her work I would like to assert that the counteractive element to voyeurism is the indictment of the audience. Gambaro does not perpetuate passivity because her staging choices and use of audi- ence participation actively condemn both the violent acts and audiences’ voyeuristic consumption of them. In short, although both of these plays use emblematic sexual violence to communicate their politics, Highway’s choices run the risk of demateri- alizing the experience of rape and facilitating passive, inactive viewing. Gambaro, however, encourages viewers to engage with the play as critics, evaluating their role as bystanders and recognizing the effects of passive voyeurism. Tomson Highway is an Indigenous Canadian writer most famous for his unfinished Rez heptalogy. Dry Lips is the second of these plays, all of which are set on the fictional Wasaychigan Reserve. They deal with similar themes, including the cultural impact of colonialism, misogynistic violence, and the introduction of Western gender roles and religion to Indigenous populations. Highway believes that gendered violence resulting from colonialism must be eliminated and attempts, through his work, “to prevent this kind of thing from happening to another Native woman” (Highway qtd. in Coté 15). Yet his plays have another aspect in common: nearly all of his plays use gendered violence to symbolize the “cultural, territorial, and spiritual dispossession brought about by colonialism” (MacKenzie 2). Dry Lips’ Nanabush is portrayed as an exaggerated vision of Western femininity—as Gazelle Nataway, she has enormous breasts, and as Patsy, she has a comically large rear. Along with the rape scene, there is a stripper scene, as well as a moment where a hockey puck gets stuck between Gazelle’s breasts. As William Worthen identifies in his introduction to the play, her physical appearance is reminiscent of the highly problematic “squaw” stereotype of a highly sexualized Indigenous woman (1682). Throughout the play, Nanabush is a figure of absurd physical comedy, and this has repercussions for how the disturbing rape scene can be interpreted. In Cree legend, Nanabush is a genderless trickster and teacher figure who uses humour to teach lessons. Although in Dry Lips Highway maintains Nanbush’s role as a trickster, he also writes her as a feminine, highly sexualized Indigenous woman. As such, her rape is meant to communicate the cost of gendered and colonial violence. The fact that she is penetrated with a cross is intended to mirror the violation of Native spirituality by Christianity. Yet, the characters are never taught this lesson, and they never interact with Nanabush’s true form because she is a spirit. It is later revealed that the entire play was a dream, and the misogyny described is a reflection of the men’s attitudes brought on by a cycle of colonialism, just as Dickie Bird’s actions are explained by his being born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Audiences, are encouraged to see gendered violence not as an individual issue but as a legacy http://scholars.wlu.ca/luja/vol4/iss1/3 2 Parnis: Voyeurism and Gendered Violence in Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing PARNIS 7 of colonialism. By using rape as a literary device in a symbolic dream, Highway perpetuates the objectification of women and the problematic depiction of female bodies as objects of conquest. Highway’s Dry Lips represents an important step forward in the perfor- mance of Indigenous political activism, but his methods are questionable. We cannot consider his works wholly subversive when he relies on tropes that perpetuate not only sexism and rape culture but also racist stereotypes. As MacKenzie points out, Highway’s recurring use of rape as a metaphor for colonial violence perpetuates derogatory stereotypes of Indigenous women that have their roots in the legacy of colonialism (8). In Imperial Leather, Anne McClintock brings this trope to light, highlighting the sexist undertones of colonial narratives that designate the earth and its land as female and vulnerable to forced “penetration” by masculine colonizers (26). This harmful trope reinforces ideas of Indigenous women as submissive and vulnerable objects rather than individuals with agency. As critic Ric Knowles emphasizes, Dry Lips equates penetration and rape with imperialism, which “risk[s] dematerializing the experience of their female subjects by metaphorically representing the effects of Christianity and colonization on Native spirituality through rape” (140). He also concludes that violence against women functions to “maintain gender hierarchies” and “perpetuate rape … as the gendered and raced technologies of colonialism” (151). Furthermore, Highway’s representation of rape is especially dangerous when we consider that Indigenous women are three times more likely to suffer from domestic violence and rape than white women and are less likely to report their experiences (Brownridge 164; Mack- enzie 9). In spite of this, some scholars have argued that Nanabush’s presence as trickster figure “actually refuses the power of rape by subsuming it within the myth- ological frameworks invoked” (Gilbert and Tompkins 215). Such explanations seek to justify the use of emblematic rape by placing it within the context of Indigenous authenticity and revival of traditional Indigenous stories. Yet this surreal element is complicated by the observation that Highway’s scene resembles real-life incidents of Indigenous rape in the 1960s and 70s (Pearson 175). Although some critics have attempted to reimagine Nanabush’s rape as a metaphor rooted in Indigenous magic, Knowles emphasizes that “the sign marks the absence of the material referent” and that emblematizing rape “risks effacing … its lived, material reality for the women who are its victims” (141). Highway’s representation of sexual violence reflects real issues with real consequences,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Unusual Sexual Behavior
    UNUSUAL SEXUAL BEHA VIOR UNUSUAL SEXUAL BEHAVIOR THE STANDARD DEVIATIONS By DAVID LESTER, Ph.D. R ichard Stockton State College Pomona, New Jersey CHARLES C THOMAS • PUBLISHER Springfield • Illinois • U.S.A. Published and Distributed Throughout the World by CHARLES C THOMAS. PUBLISHER Bannerstone House 301-327 East Lawrence Avenue, Springfield, I1!inois, U.S.A. This book is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from the publisher. ©1975, by CHARLES C THOMAS. PUBLISHER ISBN 0-398-03343-9 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74 20784 With THOMAS BOOKS careful attention is given to all details of manufacturing and design. It is the Publisher's desire to present books that are satisfactory as to their physical qualities and artistic possibilities and appropriate for their particular use. THOMAS BOOKS will be true to those laws of quality that assure a good name and good will. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lester, David, 1942- Unusual sexual behavior. Includes index. 1. Sexual deviation. I. Title. [DNLM: 1. Sex deviation. WM610 L642ul RC577.IA5 616.8'583 74-20784 ISBN 0-398-03343-9 Printed in the United States of America A-2 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this book is to review the literature on sexual deviations. Primarily the review is concerned with the research literature and not with clinical studies. However, occasional refer­ ence is made to the conclusions of clinical studies and, in particular, to psychoanalytic hypotheses about sexual deviations. The coverage of clinical and psychoanalytic ideas is by no means intended to be exhaustive, unlike the coverage of the research literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Homelessness, Survival Sex and Human Trafficking: As Experienced by the Youth of Covenant House New York
    Homelessness, Survival Sex and Human Trafficking: As Experienced by the Youth of Covenant House New York May 2013 Jayne Bigelsen, Director Anti-Human Trafficking Initiatives, Covenant House New York*: Stefanie Vuotto, Fordham University: Tool Development and Validation Project Coordinators: Kimberly Addison, Sara Trongone and Kate Tully Research Assistants/Legal Advisors: Tiffany Anderson, Jacquelyn Bradford, Olivia Brown, Carolyn Collantes, Sharon Dhillon, Leslie Feigenbaum, Laura Ferro, Andrea Laidman, Matthew Jamison, Laura Matthews-Jolly, Gregory Meves, Lucas Morgan, Lauren Radebaugh, Kari Rotkin, Samantha Schulman, Claire Sheehan, Jenn Strashnick, Caroline Valvardi. With a special thanks to Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates for their financial support and to the Covenant House New York staff who made this report possible. And our heartfelt thanks go to the almost 200 Covenant House New York youth who shared their stories with us. *For questions on the use of the trafficking screening tool discussed in this report or anything else related to the substance of the study, please contact study author, Jayne Bigelsen at [email protected] Table of Contents: Executive Summary . 5 Introduction . 5 Key Findings . 6 Terminology . 7 Objectives/Method . 8 Results and Discussion . 10 Compelled Sex Trafficking . 10 Survival Sex . 11 Relationship between Sex Trafficking and Survival Sex . 12 Labor Trafficking . 13 Contributing Factors . 14 Average Age of Entry into Commercial Sexual Activity . 16 Transgender and Gay Youth . 16 Development and Use of the Trafficking Assessment Tool . 17 Implications for Policy and Practice . 19 Conclusion . 21 Appendix: Trafficking Screening Tool . 22 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction In recent years, the plight of human trafficking victims has received a great deal of attention among legislators, social service providers and the popular press.
    [Show full text]
  • Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York
    promoting access to White Rose research papers Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and York http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ This is an author produced version of a paper published in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/3349/ Published paper Kieran, M. (2002) On Obscenity: The Thrill and Repulsion of the Morally Prohibited. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, LXIV (1). pp. 31-56. ISSN 1933-1592 White Rose Research Online [email protected] On Obscenity: The Thrill and Repulsion of the Morally Prohibited Matthew Kieran, University of Leeds Abstract The paper proceeds by criticising the central accounts of obscenity proffered by Feinberg, Scruton and the suggestive remarks of Nussbaum and goes on to argue for the following formal characterization of obscenity: x is appropriately judged obscene if and only if either A/ x is appropriately classified as a member of a form or class of objects whose authorized purpose is to solicit and commend to us cognitive-affective responses which are (1) internalized as morally prohibited and (2) does so in ways found to be or which are held to warrant repulsion and (3) does so in order to a/ indulge first order desires held to be morally prohibited or b/ indulge the desire to be morally transgressive or the desire to feel repulsed or c/ afford cognitive rewards or d/ any combination thereof or B/ x successfully elicits cognitive-affective responses which conform to conditions (1)- (3). I: Introduction What is it for something to be obscene? The question is both interesting philosophically and of practical import.
    [Show full text]
  • In Love with a Stripper
    CHAPTER 10 IN LOVE WITH A STRIPPER Young Girls as Preys in a Predator Society Encouraging five- to ten-year-old children to model themselves after sex workers suggests the degree to which matters of ethics and propriety have been decoupled from the world of marketing and advertising, even when the target audience is young children. The representational politics at work … connect children’s bodies to a reductive notion of sexuality, pleasure and commodification, while depicting children’s sexuality and bodies as nothing more than objects for voyeuristic adult consumption and crude financial profit. —Henry Giroux, Youth in a Suspect Society1 In late 2009, a toy company began selling a female doll which, as main feature, twirled around a plastic stripper poll. “The doll begins dancing when the music is turned on,” a blogger described, “and she goes ‘up and down’ and ‘round and round’.” On the box cover ran the following: “Style.” “Interesting.” “Music.” “Flash.” “Up and Down.” “Go Round and Round.” The targeted demographic: kids unskilled to decipher this insidious suggestion, of the stripper lifestyle as fun and chic—the thing to be. Gone are the days when society’s young girls are encouraged to emulate educa- tors, pioneers, lawyers, doctors, social workers, architects, activists, artists, or cultural critics. Today, the energy-expunging, dignity-diminishing exercise of stripping— all to temper the carnal demands of lustful men—is the new it. But selling spiritual death to children marks nothing new. For years now, corporations, in frenzy to enlarge coffers, have found children (and more so young girls) most vulnerable and lucrative.
    [Show full text]
  • Sex Work During COVID-19: the Perspectives of Sex Workers in Berlin and New York City Published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office, December 2020
    Sex Work During COVID-19: The Perspectives of Sex Workers in Berlin and New York City Published by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office, December 2020 Executive Director: Andreas Günther Editor: Maria Savel Address: 275 Madison Avenue, Suite 2114, New York, NY 10016 Email: [email protected] Phone: +1 (917) 409-1040 With support from the German Foreign Office. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is an internationally operating, progressive non-profit institution for civic education. In cooperation with many organizations around the globe, it works on democratic and social participation, empowerment of disadvantaged groups, alternatives for economic and social development, and peaceful conflict resolution. The New York Office serves two major tasks: to work around issues concerning the United Nations and to engage in dialogue with North American progressives in universities, unions, social movements, and politics. Cover photo by Flickr user kiwien (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). www.rosalux.nyc Sex Work During COVID-19: The Perspective of Sex Workers in Berlin and New York City Contents The View from Berlin Fighting for Money and Dignity: Sex Work in Berlin 5 By Akynos How Germany Failed Sex Workers 9 By Liad Hussein Kantorowicz Clothed Until Further Notice: Being a Stripper During the Pandemic 12 By the Berlin Strippers Collective The View from New York City Invisible: Sex Work and Mutal Aid During COVID-19 16 By Molly Simmons Not My First Pandemic - Sex Work Through NYC’s Health Crises 19 By Jay/Jae Authors 25 3 Sex Work During COVID-19 The View from Berlin 4 Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung New York Office Fighting for Money and Dignity: Sex Work in Berlin By Akynos In Germany, and many parts of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic high- lights just how much sex workers are being held accountable for keeping this crisis under control, even when they aren’t the ones responsible for it.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dialectic of Obscenity
    University of Kentucky UKnowledge Law Faculty Scholarly Articles Law Faculty Publications Winter 2012 The Dialectic of Obscenity Brian L. Frye University of Kentucky College of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/law_facpub Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Commons, and the Legal History Commons Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Brian L. Frye, The Dialectic of Obscenity, 35 Hamline L. Rev. 229 (2012). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Faculty Publications at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Faculty Scholarly Articles by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Dialectic of Obscenity Notes/Citation Information Hamline Law Review, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Winter 2012), pp. 229-278 This article is available at UKnowledge: https://uknowledge.uky.edu/law_facpub/264 229 THE DIALECTIC OF OBSCENITY Brian L. Frye* I. INTRODUCTION 230 II. A BRIEF HISTORY OF OBSCENITY 231 A. WHAT IS OBSCENITY? 231 B. THE RISE & FALL OF THE PANDERING TEST 232 C. THE MILLER TEST 234 D. THE AFTERMATH OF MILLER 235 III. FLAMING CREATURES 236 A. THE MAKING OF FLAMING CREATURES 237 B. THE INTRODUCTION OF FLAMING CREATURES 238 C. THE PERSECUTION OF FLAMING CREATURES 242 IV. JACOBS V. NEW YORK 245 A. FLAMING CREATURES IN NEW YORK STATE COURT 245 B. FLAMING CREATURES IN THE SUPREME COURT 250 C.
    [Show full text]
  • Sexy Stripper Game: the Motivating Effects of Anticipated Sexual Reward
    Sexy Stripper Game: the motivating effects of anticipated sexual reward. Rodney Birjmohun Student number: 9964371 Poppy Watson Supervisor University of Amsterdam Glossary Abstract 2 Introduction 3 Method 5 Results 10 Discussion 15 References 17 1 Abstract In the current study we investigated whether anticipated sexual reward (sexual stimuli) would bias the motivation to pursue financial rewards. This general Pavlovian-to-instrumental- transfer (PIT) was assessed by using a computerized PIT-task in which participants had to press on two response keys, at certain moments in the presence of Pavlovian sexual stimuli, in order to gain financial (instrumental) rewards. The hypotheses (1) that a general PIT effect would be observed by increased overall response rates and (2) that the general PIT effect would be greater for Pavlovian stimuli that predict rewards of greater magnitude, were both confirmed. We also found an unexpected result, which states that less-appetitive anticipated sexual stimuli biases responses towards rewards of lower financial magnitude. Additionally, we examined individual differences in the strength of the PIT-effect, by relating the behavioral data to data about sexual attitudes and watching online pornography, acquired by corresponding questionnaires. A positive correlation between addictive porn watching and strength of PIT was found. The societal relevance of this study is of most importance, considering the abundance of cues in the modern environment, signaling the availability of sexually rewarding encounters such as internet pornography and dating apps such as Tinder. 2 Introduction Cues that have previously been associated with rewarding outcomes, can bias responding towards those rewards and also influence the rate of responding for other rewards (Corbit & Balleine, 2005, 2011).
    [Show full text]
  • Claiming Work-Related Expenses Adult Industry Workers
    23/2/2014 Income and deductions - secondary Adult industry workers - claiming work-related expenses http://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/In-detail/Deductions-for-specific-industries-and- occupations/Adult-industry-workers---claiming-work-related-expenses/ Last modified: 07 Feb 2014 QC 18626 Adult industry workers – claiming work-related expenses Overview How to work out which common work-related expenses you can claim and whether you are eligible to claim them. Terms we use When we say: you, we mean you as an adult industry worker sole operator or independent contractor, we mean that you work for yourself, or contract your services to others – for example, as an escort, stripper or dancer tax deduction, we mean money spent supporting your work, which can then be used to reduce your assessable income and the amount of tax you pay. When you can make a claim http://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/In-detail/Deductions-for-specific-industries-and- occupations/Adult-industry-workers---claiming-work-related-expenses/?page=2 Last modified: 07 Feb 2014 QC 18626 In most situations, you can claim a deduction for a work-related expense as long as your claim meets all of the following conditions: you incurred the expense in doing your job the expense is not private – for example, travel from home to work and from work to home is generally not deductible, and you can show you incurred the expense by producing receipts or other written evidence, unless an http://www.ato.gov.au/printfriendly.aspx?url=/Individuals/Income-and-deductions/In-detail/Deductions-for-specific-industries-and-occupations/Adult-industry-… 1/7 23/2/2014 Income and deductions - secondary exception applies.
    [Show full text]
  • Acting Out: Gypsy Rose Lee, Burlesque Culture, and Sylvia Plath
    WENDY WHELAN-STEWART Acting Out: Gypsy Rose Lee, Burlesque Culture, and Sylvia Plath Te summer that Sylvia Plath spent in New York as a guest editor for Mademoiselle was a critical landmark in the writer’s life. Te site of her immersion in the overlapping spheres of literary culture, professional writing, and women’s fashion was the Barbizon Hotel for Women. Te hotel stood in 1953, as it does now, at the corner of the famous Lexington Avenue and 63rd Street. Just a few paces west on 63rd Street, at the Northwestern corner of the block, was the stylish apartment owned by Gypsy Rose Lee, the “literary stripper”. Te proximity of these two women to one another, rather than an intersection, is signifcant to understanding the impact that burlesque culture had on Plath’s literary career. In fact, twenty-year-old Plath’s fnal gesture to fashionable, feminine New York bears something of the burlesque: On her last night at the Barbizon, afer weeks of exhaustive performances before demanding and famous senior editors and photographers, Plath hoisted her suitcase to the roof where the other undergraduate guest editors collected. Te suitcase contained all of the complimentary clothing articles Mademoiselle had showered on Plath and her young colleagues. Before a tipsy, amused crowd, Plath “tossed each slip, stocking, sheath, and skirt into the night sky” (Winder 200). Tese garments, particularly the undergarments, held up one by one and then dropped before a crowd onto a public street, allude to the spectacle of a woman’s removing her inner and outer layers before an audience.
    [Show full text]
  • Licensing Regulations for Places of Adult Entertainment
    From: Vautrin, Josie B To: Council Comment Cc: Garwood, Robin D. Subject: FW: Written Testimony and procedural questions about hearing Date: Friday, August 09, 2019 1:16:02 PM Attachments: written feedback 1.pdf Written Feedback 2.pdf Written feedback 3.pdf Written Feedback from Performers.pdf RSP Final.pdf To include in the record for the public hearing at PECE on 8/12 for the Adult Entertainment Industry Ordinance --- Dear Josie, I am attaching several documents to this email. The first is the one-pager for SWOP's need assessment study. If possible, could you share this with the council members? Second, I have attached a few different pdfs of compiled written feedback from people with lived experience as dancers. Some of the feedback is handwritten and was shared at a community engagement meeting we held back in July. Most people elected to remain anonymous, and a few attached their names. There may be other feedback coming, and if I get more I will forward it your way. In general, the feedback falls into three categories: racism and favoritism, pay structure and economic exploitation, and health and safety concerns. As you will see, multiple people wrote very lucidly about how the pay structure reinforces racism, discrimination, and poor working conditions. THE REAL STRIPPER REPORT: A NEEDS ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT WORKERS IN THE MINNEAPOLIS STRIPPING INDUSTRY A Collaboration Between SWOP-Minneapolis, Minnesota State University, & Sex Workers Outreach Project - USA BACKGROUND After learning about possible new ordinances affecting strip clubs, Andi Seymour, Jayne Swift, and Ramona Falls (SWOP-Minneapolis) partnered with Eric Sprankle, Machensey Shelgren, and Alex Twohy (Minnesota State University) and Katie Bloomquist (Vice President of Sex Workers Outreach Project - USA) to conduct a needs assessment of current workers in the local stripping industry.
    [Show full text]
  • Sexual Fetishism in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
    Bondage, Bestiality, and Bionics: Sexual Fetishism in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner BY KYLE J. NOVAK The Ridley Scott film adaptation of Phillip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is nothing less than a subtextual goldmine for film and literary critics alike. A favorite of the common movie buff and the crutch of every academic seeking to fully document its meaning, Blade Runner has been dissected, gutted, and had its components scrutinized more than any other science fiction film of its generation. Books are devoted to its deconstruction. Papers have been proposing new ways to look at the piece for decades, and indeed, this essay is no different. The sheer abundance of analytic material, though, poses a difficult question. Does Blade Runner simply act as a mirror to the critic's expectations or is it truly a source of infinitely complex themes and meanings? After all, to assume that every essayist's conclusions are true and, therefore, present in the film on the basis of a calculated decision by the filmmakers is quite spectacular. Ultimately, whatever the filmmakers didn't do deliberately, they did subconsciously, and the subconscious additions are of more scholarly value than what was sketched out on paper. Among these subconsciously included themes is the subject of the following quote: “More than any other American film genre . science fiction denies human eroticism and libido a traditional narrative representation and expression.”1 Sex in a science fiction film is not unique, but neither is it prominent. For the most part, popular culture agrees with this notion, considering how fans of the genre are often lampooned as socially-inept asexuals or sheltered life-long virgins.
    [Show full text]
  • Emotional Labor and Prostitution
    University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2004 Faking it: Emotional labor and prostitution Mary Pat Dutton The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Dutton, Mary Pat, "Faking it: Emotional labor and prostitution" (2004). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 5316. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/5316 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maureen and Mike MANSFIELD LIBRARY The University of Mflmttma Permission is granted by the author to reproduce this material in its entirety, provided that this material is used for scholarly purposes and is properly cited in published works and reports. **Please check "Yes" or "No" and provide signature ** Yes, I grant permission No, I do not grant permission ___________ Author's Signature: Date: JZ ' Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author's explicit consent. 8/98 FAKING IT: EMOTIONAL LABOR AND PROSTITUTION by Mary Pat Dutton B.A. Carroll College, Montana, 1974 presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The University of Montana Approved by: Cfiait'serson Dean, Graduate School vz-2\-o4 Date UMI Number: EP40780 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.
    [Show full text]